Sleep disturbance among people grieving the recent loss of a spouse may put them at increased risk for cardiovascular illness and death, a study has warned.

Recently widowed people are more likely to suffer from sleep disturbances, such as insomnia, that may lead to increased levels of inflammation in the body.

Higher levels of inflammation may in turn increase risk for heart diseases, showed the findings published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.

The study found that the link between sleep disturbances and inflammation was two to three times higher for the bereaved spouses.

The researchers found that the link between sleep disturbances and inflammation was two to three times higher for the bereaved spouses.Pixabay

“The death of a spouse is an acutely stressful event and they have to adapt to living without the support of the spouse,” said Diana Chirinos from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, US.

“Add sleep disturbance to their already stressful situation and you double the stressor. As a result, their immune system is more overactivated,” Chirinos said.

The study included 101 people with an average age of 67. Half were bereaved (identified through obituaries), and the rest were included in a control group.

The researchers compared the self-reported sleep habits of recently widowed people to the control group. Both the groups had sleep disturbances.

Higher levels of inflammation may in turn increase risk for heart diseases (IANS)

The researchers found that the link between sleep disturbances and inflammation was two to three times higher for the bereaved spouses.

Inflammation was measured by the level of proinflammatory cytokines, which are designed to be short-term fighters of disease but are linked to long-term risk for health problems including cardiovascular disease.

Bereaved individuals are more susceptible to the negative health effects of poor sleep, the study said. (IANS)

Green tea is believed to have therapeutic intervention to cure a variety of diseases. Pixabay

Want to cut that extra flab? Drinking green tea can help reduce obesity as well as inflammation in the gut, finds a study.

The findings, published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, showed that mice fed a high-fat diet supplemented with green tea gained about 20 per cent less weight and had lower insulin resistance than mice fed an otherwise identical diet without tea.

Mice fed a diet of two per cent green tea extract had an improved gut health including more beneficial microbes in the intestines and less permeability in the intestinal wall — a condition called “leaky gut” — than those that ate a diet without it.

Leaky gut is a problem in humans that contributes to widespread low-grade inflammation.

“This study provides evidence that green tea encourages the growth of good gut bacteria, and that leads to a series of benefits that significantly lower the risk of obesity,” said lead author Richard Bruno, Professor at the Ohio State University.

Green tea. Pixabay

For eight weeks, the team fed half of the male mice a high-fat diet that causes obesity and half were fed a regular diet. In each of those groups, half ate green tea extract mixed with their food.

Female mice were not included as they are resistant to diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance.

Green tea also protected against the movement of endotoxin — the toxic bacterial component — out of their guts and into the bloodstream.